Saint Matthew's

Pat Robertson, the televangelist head of the Christian Broadcasting Network and “The 700 Club” television program, made a startling statement yesterday when it came to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti.

Robertson said that the devil did it.

Even more, he said that the people of Haiti did this to themselves when they made a pact with the devil to get rid of their French occupiers in the 19th Century.

His evidence includes the state of the island in which Haiti is located — they share Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. According to the reverend, the pact with the devil has kept Haiti from prospering. While the Dominican Republic has prospered, Haiti is impoverished. And now Haiti is suffering under a devastating earthquake while the DR is not.

Does this require a response?

I can’t believe I even typed those words above.

Please donate some money to the LCMS World Relief and Human Care; scroll to the bottom and click the “Give Now” button.

We’ll have a special weekend collection here at church this weekend.

I don’t post enough information regarding what our Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod is dealing with on a daily basis. In an effort to change that misstep, here is the latest news release from the Synod:

Kieschnick responds to Blue Ribbon Task Force report
By Linda C. Hoops

Believing that the delegates to next year’s Synod convention have a “right to hear and that I have a duty to share my thoughts, affirmations, concerns, and recommendations” on the report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance, Synod President Dr. Gerald B. Kieschnick issued an eight-page response to the report Dec. 1.

His response and the 50-page task force report, released in late October, are on the LCMS Web site at http://www.lcms.org/lcmsfuture.

Kieschnick provided the rationale for the formation and work of the task force in a March 1, 2005, pastoral letter.

“There is a great need for a thorough and fundamental review of what our Synod is, how it is organized, and how it functions.  What was first created as an organizational system for a Synod made up of a small number of congregations (14) now struggles to serve more than 6,150 congregations.”

The task force was asked to suggest a philosophy and form of structure and governance for the decades ahead that is “appropriately representative, incorporates sufficient checks and balances, and is not cumbersome or excessively complex. It should facilitate maximum operating efficiency on behalf of and in support of the members and congregations of our Synod in accomplishing the mission of our Lord and His church.”

In his response to the final report, Kieschnick thanked the task force for its “faithful and extensive work over the past four and one-half years,” then evaluated the task force recommendations and indicated his level of support for each.

One of the major recommendations coming out of the report calls for the elimination of the Synod’s seven program boards and two of its six commissions.  Stating that the “structure of the national Synod has evolved over the years into a complex and inefficient system that is perceived as unresponsive to the needs of the congregations,” the task force report recommends consolidating the eliminated boards and commissions into two advisory commissions, one for National Mission and one for International Mission.

The senior staff members in these two commissions would be directly accountable to a chief mission officer, who would be accountable to the Synod president.

In his response, Kieschnick cites several examples of problems he has personally encountered in the current Synod structure, including budget-management issues and boards working independently of each other and not collaboratively.

Kieschnick supports the recommendation to eliminate the current boards and commissions, stating it would solve the problems of supervision and accountability within the Synod structure.  But he also says that having the chief mission officer accountable to him “could be seen as concentration of excessive authority in the office of the Synod president.  That is neither the task force’s intention nor my desire.”

Instead, he says a plan that would consolidate the current program boards and commissions into two boards (the Board for National Mission and the Board for International Mission), instead of two advisory commissions, “is worthy of consideration.”

“My primary concern in this matter is to improve the system that currently exists while also ensuring that the task force recommendation would properly and adequately satisfy my request and the Synod’s need for provision of appropriate checks and balances,” he writes.

He also states that “assigning to the president the direct or indirect responsibility to supervise the day-to-day work of the employees of the Synod and allowing the president a method of intervention should either board violate the constitution, bylaws, or resolutions of the Synod,” should be considered.

Kieschnick expresses support for the recommendations made in the first three sections of the report, which deal with amending the Synod’s constitution, the voting rights of individuals and congregations, and the restoration of circuits to the purpose for which they were originally intended, stating, “Circuits are so important for the health and well-being of congregations and ministers of the Gospel.”

In the fourth section, which discusses districts and congregations, he cautions that a proposed future study of district reconfiguration “would need to be conducted with great sensitivity to the tradition and history of each of the 35 districts of the Synod.”

He favors the creation of a separate category for commissioned ministers to serve as voting delegates to district and Synod conventions that would not reduce the number of lay or pastoral delegates, but he does not support a recommendation that would give congregations with more than 1,000 communicant members two extra votes at district conventions, stating, “It does not appear to be contributing to a greater spirit of harmony in our Synod.”

Kieschnick supports the task force recommendation in section five that calls for the establishment of five national regions to provide more effective representation of congregations across the Synod on the Praesidium (president and vice presidents) and Board of Directors of the Synod.

“Only one Synod vice president currently lives west of the Mississippi River.  He lives in St. Louis, only 20 miles west of that river,” Kieschnick writes in his response.  ”Since regular visitation of all 35 districts by the Synod president is virtually impossible, I support this recommendation, which would enable congregations to nominate vice presidents from their region.”

In section six of the task force report, Kieschnick views as “excellent” a recommendation that would allot to each district a proportionate share of the fixed number of Synod convention delegates based on the district’s percentage of the total congregations and communicants.

The task force had recommended that the number of delegates be reduced to 650, from the current number of 1,250 voting delegates and 350 advisory delegates.

“While the specific number of national convention delegates recommended by the task force would result in significant cost savings to congregations, careful consideration should be given to whether 650 delegates would provide sufficiently broad representation of congregations to national conventions,” Kieschnick comments.

He also supports the task force recommendation for a quadrennial convention cycle for circuit and district theological convocations and district and Synod conventions.

In the conclusion to his response, Kieschnick writes, “It is my prayer that the work of the task force and the decisions ultimately made by the Synod in convention will result in a system of structure and governance for our beloved Synod that will result in greater efficiency and effectiveness in accomplishing the mission our Lord has given His church.”

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As I have said and written, my biggest fear about this governance change is how congregations, especially small to medium congregations, are going to be treated. When the Synod reduces the number of delegates to the national convention, thus reducing the numbers of delegates from each district, it is guaranteed that large churches will have “more of a say” in who represents a district at convention.

Now, this is not to say that I don’t have other issues with the Blue Ribbon Task Force’s report. I feel that more worked needed to be done in explaining the cost rebalancing of the Synod, the districts, and our individual congregations. I fear that costs are going to be pressed upon our districts, causing a lot of heartache on congregations struggling to pay annual commitments.

An op-ed article in this morning’s Record made me giggle.

THE BIBLE, it turns out, is too liberal.

At least the Conservative Bible Project thinks so. The group has set itself the task of “translating” the Bible in a more conservative way, so as to eliminate liberal “misinterpretations” and prevent liberal “misconstruals.”

One of the funny things about the Bible has been the way politically liberal and conservative thinkers use the book to advance a political agenda. Both sides have, for the most part, raised up various points of Holy Scripture that portend to show that God is on their side. No matter the issue — abortion, helping the homeless, the death penalty, you name it — liberal and conservative thinkers say that God really promotes their agenda, so the other side should just shhh!

When it comes to bible translation, there are a number of people who have complained that more modern bible translations tend to be more “liberal” in their interpretation of the original languages. The complaints are always centered around words the words that were chosen to describe actions. For instance, when Jesus is crucified and the Roman soldiers are “casting lots” for his garments (thus fulfilling a prophesy), some conservative theologians believe that the phrase “casting lots” is a little to cagey. They want a more clear cut way to describe the act of the soldiers.

Hence, they want to replace “casting lots” with the word “gambling.” Not the worst thing in the world, I admit. It does render the translation more relevant.

But then go off the reservation. Apparently, the bible is also very socialistic when it renders workers as “laborers” (think – we’re laborers in the harvest field sounds too much like something Stalin would say). They complain that the English Standard Version of the bible, the one we use in church, only uses the word “volunteer” once, a word they consider more conservative.

On the other side, liberals tend to ignore some of the more direct writings in Scripture. When Scripture states that the priesthood is a role given to men, liberals tend to blame the culture that Saint Paul grew up in that minimized the role of women within the faith. Forget what Paul writes, they say; instead, use a more enlightened understanding of Holy Scripture. Instead of male-female direct references in biblical translation, liberals tend to translate roles by removing gender. By removing gender, they remove a critical translation component that renders the original languages irrelevant. They also tend to ignore that while abortion is not specifically mentioned in the Old or New Testaments, that the Word of God is clear that each child in the womb is a creation of God.

Of course, I could go on all day writing about both sides.

But the topic – from which political bent does the Word of God come – is one that will be argued until Christ’s second coming.

I have always believed that when society and the church raises up the Word of God and uses it in a political context, the real intent of the book is being missed. It is not a social contract – it is a book explaining God’s plan of salvation for humanity. It is God’s Word that shows how He justifies the sinful through the blood of His Son. It is a book that explains in a most impassioned way the life that God wanted for His creation –  a life free of sin, where the Law that was written on the tablets would be written on our hearts where we would love God above all things and those fellow humans as we would love ourselves always.

In our falling into sin, we fall away from God’s intent and struggle in our day to live better lives. God’s Word is that impetus that gears our heart to repentance so we can receive His forgiveness for our breaking of His holy Law. From that forgiveness, centered on our faith, we work hard to fulfill the Law that is simply loving God above all things and loving humanity without question. And as we live forgiven lives by our faith, we are different than what society tells us we should be like.

We just do good because that is who we are – justified before God, emboldened to show what Christ’s work for us at the cross really means.

I am a conservative theologian. My conservative Lutheran credentials are clearly stamped; just listen to me in church and in bible class. Yet, to use the Word of God to make a political point is not the intention of the Bible.

The following is my weekly Parish Announcements article from our coming weekend’s bulletin:

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The LCMS’ Blue Ribbon Governance Task Force has released their “final” report to the Synod that includes their recommendations for restructuring. As I have written before, I am not confident that the Task Force’s focus on structuring the Synod around larger congregations and districts is a good thing. Just glancing at the final report, not much has changed from their original form and my same objections stand.

Reminder – not everything being suggested is bad. Some of the ideas (such as rewriting the preamble of the Synodical Constitution) aren’t deal breakers. just head scratchers. But some of the proposals rile me up, such as reducing the number of convention delegates from 1200+ to only 650 while giving larger churches more of a say in delegate selection.

One of the more interesting aspects in my first quick glance is that the individual district structure will remain as it current is — but a special Task Force (hopefully with a better acronym than the current Blue Ribbon Task Force has) will be set up to investigate merging or eliminating districts.

Another idea I like – making the Synodical Convention (and thus, the nationally elected offices) every four years.

The lengthy report is available at the LCMS website or click here for a direct download link.

(More over at reviovine.com)

This weekend at church, we will begin a month long collection for money to help the LCMS World Relief and Human Care deal with the disasters in the Southeast Asia/Pacific region. Just this week alone, an earthquake caused a tsunami, wiping out villages and towns in the American Samoa area; horrendous flooding in the Philippines from a storm that eventually became a typhoon that pounded Vietnam; and a typhoon that hit Taiwan.

We will collect donations after church during Fellowship Hour this weekend and starting next weekend, we’ll collect a goodwill offering during our new “Coffee Hour” after church.

It is impossible for Gospel-rendered faith in Christ to be idle, and thus thousands of congregations and individuals assist us with their gifts that we might offer assistance to people in need all over the world. As we do so, we are ambassadors for Christ, his Gospel, and the magnificent confession of that Gospel in the orthodox Lutheran faith. The conservative Lutheran confession of the faith and liberal love of the neighbor belong together in the life of the individual Christian, the local congregation and the national church body.

For more information, and to watch a video with LCMS World Relief and Human Care Executive Director Matthew Harrison, please click here.

“Scripture is not clear on a lot of sexual issues,” said the Rev. Stan Abraham, pastor at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in Soquel and Trinity Lutheran Church in Watsonville. “And because it is not a cut-and-dry issue, the ELCA’s decision is reasonable at this particular time.”

The Missouri Synod’s position is that you can be a gay or lesbian member of the church, but not a practicing clergy member, celibate or not.

“It was a good decision for the ELCA to allow each congregation to decide whether or not they want to allow for the ordination of gay men and lesbians in committed relationships,” said Abraham. “The decision will not impact the good relationships we have with our colleagues at the ELCA.”

I have said it many times — the problem with Christianity is Christians. We bring our own sinful biases into the church, whether they be on social issues or political ones, and we tend to make these more about ourselves and our biases than the Word of God. To be honest, I’ve done it enough in my short ministry that I try to always take a breather or go for a walk before I either open my mouth and insert my foot. I pray that “foot in mouth” issues become less of a problem for me in the future than they have in my past.

This is something all clergy people should pray for and work towards. Why?

When an LC-MS pastor says that the Word of God isn’t clear on sexual issues, well, before he inserted his foot he should have opened up the Bible.

The Bible is clear — sex is a gift from God that is supposed to be within the confines of a marriage. While society believes sex is just sex and everyone should be doing it, God tells us otherwise. It is not that hard; we have the Word and that is what we preach.

But we also preach the repentance of the sinner and forgiveness given to each of us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Absolved of sin, we are obligated as those who forgiven to act better, to work in our lives to be better people. This includes the areas of intimacy.

This is where the church must stand. If sex outside the marriage bed is wantonly accepted, then God’s Word is ignored. The Church must never ignore the Word, no matter how much the people want us to.

That is why I am disappointed in Pastor Abraham. The sins of sex are cut and dry. But so is forgiveness through Christ to those who break them.

(I copied this post from my personal blog – reviovine.com)

The title of this post comes from the Washington Post “On Faith” blog. This week, they challenge religious-oriented people to tackle the question whether God has been or should be taken out of the marriage rite.

Legally, a church cannot officially “marry” anyone in the eyes of the state without the couple receiving a state-issued marriage license. Hypothetically, if a couple walked into my office this morning and asked me to marry them this afternoon, my first question to them would have to be whether they have a government-issued marriage license. Of course, I’m talking hypothetically — I wouldn’t marry anyone who showed up on my doorstep and begged me to marry them right away.

The relationship between God and marriage and the state is challenging one, especially in our day when gay marriage is a hot topic. Those who subscribe to the biblical and traditional marriage rite of one man and one woman are being questioned as to their subscribing to their beliefs and, when they hold to their understanding of marriage in a God pleasing sense, are being described as wanting to take away civil rights from their opponents. Or, as I’ve been accused of, being filled with hate for gays. On the other hand, those who want the government to allow same sex couples to be legally married, are being attacked as being deviants.

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As you know, the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod is undergoing a “personal study” to decide on how it is going to be structured and governed as it goes into the future. There are, of course, a number of questions about the governance of this Synod and its overall structure that need to be asked, but also need to be addressed.

The Synodical President’s Blue Ribbon Task Force has been working on just for the past several years. This year, they are presenting a series of proposals to each district convention to outline proposed changes to the Synod. For example, they are proposing changes to the structure of the Synod’s conventions (limited voters to either 650 to 800), allowing large congregations additional votes at convention, scraping the current structure of district governance (ie., circuits and how they are decided upon), shrinking the number of districts, and overhauling how the Synodical President is elected.

In a nutshell, the proposals sound very good when you hear them presented at convention. They do sound fabulous … until you sit down and actually think about them.

I’ve started a review of these proposals. Today’s entry is just a general “how I feel” post. I write more about this over at my blog.

(This entry is a re-posting from my personal blog, reviovine.com)

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod released a statement yesterday concerning the Sunday shooting of an abortion doctor in Wichita, Kansas. Nothing overarching in the statement attributed to our Synodical President, Rev. Jerry Kieshnick.

However, two things got to me — first, the press release “quotes” Kieshnick as using the phrase “Lutheran Christians.”

Ugh.

I just can’t stand that. Being a “Lutheran” means that you’re a Christian. To use “Lutheran” as a modifier for Christian is kind of dopey, in my book. I mean, when is the last time you read “Roman Catholic Christian” or “Presbyterian Christian?” People can figure out that being a Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, or even Lutheran means that one is a Christian. My suggestion is that they just drop the little modifier game. Play it straight.

Second, there is no mention of Jesus Christ anywhere in that press release. Again, some will think I am nitpicking, but let’s be honest — isn’t a press statement a good place to mention our Savior’s name, especially in a release about a senseless murder? We can’t miss these opportunities to proclaim the forgiveness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The following is New Jersey District President Rev. William Klettke’s monthly report, as found in “Servant to Servant” for May 2009:

God’s Gifts in the Spring

As people of the Resurrection we live each day in thanksgiving and thankful living for the victory our Lord won for us over sin and death. As a District President I have been privileged to participate in the placement of candidates from our colleges and Seminaries into positions of service for ordained and commissioned ministers. Each Spring usually right after we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord, the Council of Presidents acting as athe Board of Assignments for the LCMS places the candidates from our two seminaries into their first call.

In recent years the Holy Spirit has called large numbers of men to prepare for the Office of Ministry. Unlike last year, all candidates were placed this year. The Council placement process included the reading of each candidate’s name and location of service by the receiving District President. There is a time of prayer and then a unanimous vote to place the candidates. We have to keep in confidence those placements for several days until the Call Service and then travel to the next seminary for another call service the following night.

The New Jersey District received 5 candidates from the Spring placement last year. This year we had no calling congregations, so I had the opportunity to walk the hallways and gather in the cafeteria for refreshments and just observe the joy, hope and anticipation on the faces of the newly placed candidates, spouses and children. It was truly a joyful moment that brought back pleasant memories. Our Lord continues to raise up good and faithful workers for the harvest field.

In other areas, the Council held election of officers. The results were: Chairman, Larry Stoterau of the Pacific Southwest District; Vice Chair, Jon Diefenthaler of the Southeastern District; Secretary – William Klettke; Committee members Randy Golter of the Rocky Mountain District and Keith Kohlmeier of the Kansas District.

Pastoral vacancy report – with 35 of 35 districts reporting vacancies following Spring Placement:

• 228 calling a sole Pastor
• 41 calling an senior pastor
• 49 calling an associate pastor

A total of 318 pastors are needed to fill these vacancies. In addition, there are 346 permanent non-calling congregations and 160 temporary non-calling congregations, for a grand total of 825 vacancies.

The non-calling congregation statistic was gathered for the first time at the April meeting in two sub-categories. This is to reflect temproarily non-calling congregations being served by an Interim Pastor or long term vacancy pastor. Those congregations are expected to be able to call a sole pastor after a period of time.

The President of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Rev. Gerald Kieshnick, released a statement this week on the outbreak of “swine flu.”

The statement is as follows:

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A while back, I promised to write some about the proposed changes to the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod governance. There is no argument that the governance of the Synod needs a little fixing up. However, a Blue Ribbon Task Force empaneled by the Synod is proposing a lot of changes – A LOT OF CHANGES – that may not be for the better. I will be writing about these in the coming days both here and on my personal blog. To get a jump start, I have a link on my blog to a website that is outlining the proposed changes. You can take part in their survey, but I would caution you not to vote until you read everything.

I was arguing with a friend this morning over the direction of the Missouri Synod.

He was all gung-ho for a move to change the name of our beloved LC-MS to something more generic, or as he crafted his argument, making the name less “regionalized.” Additionally, he fully supported the changes being proposed to shrink the number of districts and increase Synodical official membership to include all church workers. Finally, he said that he continued to provide overwhelming support for the Synodical “Ablaze!” program that has so far raised $44 Million. Moreover, he explained he continued to endorse “evangelism” programs that made churches bigger while reducing the numbers of “smaller” churches by having them merge with other small churches to make them more viable.

It was early so I didn’t want to scream.

To answer his points with my ideas:

1. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with the name “Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod?” I mean, there is nothing wrong with it. It is historical and deep-rooted within the movement of confessional Lutheranism in the world. Just because some within the Synodical structure have this idea that we’ll get on TV more if we call ourselves something more generic doesn’t mean what they are proposing is right. Keep the name. Don’t worry about the PR. Just preach Christ crucified.

2. Reducing districts is a good idea – it could reduce overhead. However, as with all these “let’s merge district” movements, the bottom-line is that bureaucracy will not be reduced – it will be enhanced. Bigger districts mean bigger staffs – more people will be needed to “organize” the far flung areas of larger districts. Unless the Synod actually decides to gut its own bureaucracy and lead the way, our districts, even if they merge, will never get smaller or cost less. It is a pipe dream unless they get serious about how the bureaucracy will be eliminated at district and Synodical levels.

3. Why is it that the idea of evangelism never seems to be rooted in Lutheranism? Why do we need a major Synodical push for centralized and bureaucratic missions in the first place? Couldn’t the Synod provide more help for Lutheran mission programs worldwide if they encouraged local churches to support a mission or missions on their own? On the Ablaze program itself, why should churches fork over 10% of their annual budget to the program with the hopes of seeing some of that money returned to their church if they come up with some new “evangelism” program? Why not just keep the money and fund your own program without it going through the Synod?

4. The backbone of the Missouri Synod has always been its smaller churches. Most churches worship less than 100 people on any given week. Just because a bureaucrat feels that these churches should merge with other small churches in order to create larger churches doesn’t mean that it is right. Congregations should decide their fate, not some bureaucrat in a district or Synodical office.

For the past several years, our Synod has been working on a major evangelism program called “Ablaze!” It is supposed to help extend the Kingdom of God. If you thought that membership in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod would go up with this concerted effort to reach out, then you’d be wrong.

Last year, LC-MS membership dropped … again.

So you have to ask yourself: Is this multi-million “evangelism” effort working?